Over the last decade or so, greater efforts have been made to conduct more detailed geosynchronous satellite observations in efforts to understand the effects of global warming as well as to assist in the prediction of weather and climate changes that, in many situations, can save hundreds or thousands of lives. In general, geosynchronous satellite observations involve a measurement of different frequency bands associated with microwave signals radiating from the Earth. The data associated with these frequency bands constitute weather and climate information. “Weather” involves measurements of planetary conditions that are highly dynamic and local in scale, such as precipitation or humidity (e.g., an amount of water vapor in a selected portion of the atmosphere), temperature, cloud formations, or the like. “Climate” involves the measurement of planetary conditions that are less dynamic and more global in scale, such as ground temperature, salt content (salinity) in oceans, or the like.
It is evident that the reliability and accuracy of weather predictions and climate change monitoring are based, at least in part, on an ability to obtain, store and transmit weather and climate information for subsequent analysis. Stated differently, an ability to obtain, store and subsequently transmit a greater amount of weather and climate information improves the reliability and accuracy in the reporting of these events.
According to a simplistic view, one may argue that, by significantly increasing the amount of storage memory deployed within a satellite, reliability and accuracy in weather and climate predictions may be improved. However, satellites in space are constantly being bombarded by charged particles that can induce changes in the data content of semiconductor memories. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as a “single event upset” or “SEU”. Hence, the deployment of greater and greater amounts of memory, without a scheme for cross-correlating and compressing the data, not only requires increased complexity in handling SEUs, but also greatly increases the overall costs associated with the satellite (e.g., increased metal shielding, increased launch weight, increased memory costs, etc.) and may even result in the transmission of less reliable data.